Peter Watts says he "has spent much of his adult life trying to decide whether to be a writer or a scientist, ending up as a marginal hybrid of both. He's won a handful of awards in fields as diverse as marine mammal science, video documentary, and science fiction. These accolades have not gone to his head since they never involved a lot of cash." He has degrees in the ecophysiology of marine mammals, so he knows whereof he speaks, rifter-wise.